I have no great advice because I have also recently re-done my resume and talked to some employers about positions that may be coming up in May. I have the same problems as you with the spotty resume and am hoping success anyway. Since we were military, I didn't stay in one place long enough, usually about 2 years each, and I took 9 years off to raise our kids but have been working for a short time lately. I had to keep most of my previous positions on my resume even though they are older than 10 years since they are all I have. It does hurt your ability to find decent employment but I'm not going to lose hope so easily.
Good luck in your search!
Charlie
This message has been edited by charlie288 on Nov 7, 2007 10:49 PM
I actually took all of my temp work off of my resume. I even took off my current position, which....gosh, we'll see if that's a good idea. And I put my degree up top, rather than at the bottom. I did that because I don't want to be seen as a secretary any more -- but those are the steady jobs I've had. I want to highlight my writing experience. Also, the church where I work now has an interesting name, which could be used against me out in the secular work-a-day world. But I'm open to advice.
Guess what everybody? I finally found my wedding ring. It was in a stupid place that I put it "temporarily," a few years ago so the kids wouldn't play with it or ask about it. Now I'm gonna pawn it! But how do I find out the pawn value of a ring? Or should I sell it on eBay?
Funny how that works with employers. I'm talking about not wanting to be seen as one thing when you are trying for another career. I recently sent a resume to a well-known IT company and the recruiter sent me a message back asking if I was interested in the technical side or on the accounting and finance side of the business since she saw so much accounting experience on my resume. My degree is a BSBA which is a business administartion degree with IT as my major. With the courses I've had, I guess that degree could qualify you for either but I never really thought I could be offered a finance position because my major is not finance. Perhaps that would have been the field I should have gone into but IT is more interesting to me. What would be perfect for me would be to utilize my accounting background with an IT position like Systems Analysis where you go in and look at the requirements for companies' systems. We'll see what happens... I have been out of the real work force for so long that I don't even know what type of salary to ask but I don't want to start too low. How do you know what to ask when you have a good deal of business experience yet are newly graduating in another field? I have as many questions as you do.
Since we moved so much, I also has some temp jobs doing accounting but would not put those on my resume either unless they turned into a permanent position. I also chose not to list my most difficult/challenging job ever which hurts because it was the only job where I quit without notice because I was treated very unfairly. Every other job I've given several months notice and never had a problem.
Good luck in your job search!
Charlie
This message has been edited by charlie288 on Nov 8, 2007 11:15 PM This message has been edited by charlie288 on Nov 8, 2007 11:08 PM This message has been edited by charlie288 on Nov 8, 2007 11:05 PM
Look online for any salary surveys done for those professions.
Not sure of the relevance but an entry level professional <asst finance manager, asst controller, financial analyst, etc> accounting position in Canada would start around $40k a year in a smaller city, and likely be higher than that in cities where accounting professionals are in demand. This would likely be after a 3 year business program where the major was accounting and finance though.
The other more entry level jobs <data entry, bookkeeping, etc> wouldn't pay nearly as much.
There are temp agencies that do salary surveys in Canada. You may find something similar for your area of the US.
I used to think resume's had to be chronological and list out the years (and sometimes months) of employment. But, if you have "spotty" employment, this only highlights your times of unemployment. I have found that the better way to organize a resume in this situation is a Functional template (not chronological). You get to choose which jobs and/or skills you want to highlight and then list them first. You can put in an objective if you like. You can also omit all dates (except for your education, if you wish). The point is, a resume can be organized in many different ways.
To get ideas, go to the bookstore with a notebook and look at the resume books. You can write down ideas and examples that you like without paying for it and you are using an up-to-date resource. Also, several books exist that are job specific (i.e., medical profession, etc.).
In short: don't feel beholden to the chronological format.
Hi Jean, I lost my job this past June when it was eliminated at my company. As part of the severance package I got a 30 day stint at an outplacement firm. This firm helped you define your career goals, assess your skills, write your resume, interview skills and networking skills.
One interesting thing they told us is that only 2 percent of jobseekers find jobs through the internet, such as through online job boards or through job search engines like Monster. Then something like 10 percent are through newspaper ads, and 10 percent through recruiters. Upwards of 70 percent of jobs are found through networking, and most jobs are found through contacts with people you already know. I know at my old company (a Fortune 500 firm) 90 percent of new hires were employee referrals. The point is not to ignore internet job postings, but that is only one avenue to use when looking for a job.
Online job search engines look for keywords to find resumes that match a job. So they told us to put a list of keywords at the bottom of our resumes for the online postings. You can see lists of keywords on many job postings. For a writing job it would probably be words like writer, editor, etc.
That being said I did find my current job (at another Fortune 500 firm) on an online company job board. I know they received over a thousand resumes for the job. My resume was specifically in response to the online posting since my prior job was nearly identical to the one I applied for.
As far as the resume goes, this firm recommended a different format than what I had seen before. At the top they had us put a qualifications summary. This is a summary of what professional role you have played or want to play and skills you have that support it. Kind of how you would introduce yourself at a networking event, or what they call an elevator speech.
Then in my case I listed the positions I have had, writing one sentance about what the responsibilities were, and then three or four bullet points on my accomplishments. All the points supported what I had put in my qualifications summary as far as my skills. For example one of my skills in the summary was project management. So for an accomplishment I put that I developed a tracking tool for managing projects. I also hit on other successful projects I had managed in other jobs, even though I didn't have the title of "project manager".
I'll just mention that I was a SAHM for 10 years, then I worked for a little nonprofit part time for three years, then I worked part time at another job for 2 1/2 years before I went full time. I only worked full time for about six months before I was laid off. My work before I had kids was for a totally different type of company in a totally different role. However, even though the types of companies, job titles and tasks in each job were different, the skills I needed to accomplish my objectives were the same in each and essential for the job I was applying for. THAT is what I emphasized in my resume. So it looked like I had a more cohesive career path than if I had just listed each job and its responsibilities.
The accomplishments list was always hard for me. I always felt like the things I did were just part of my job and not above and beyond. But that isn't the point, the point is to communicate the positive results of your work and how they demonstrate that you really do have the skills the employer needs so that the potential employer can envision what you might bring to their job. Most recruiters spend less than 10 seconds reviewing each resume so you have to tell your story in the most persuasive way you can.
For me since my degrees are not in the field I work in I just put that I had a BA and an MA but not the field. I didn't put the years either as I do not want to call attention to my age!
Just a few things I learned the hard way last summer . . .
